Sure we want to do this because we're decent people, but we also want to prove that we're decent people. We won't win over the government, but "hearts and minds" of ordinary Iranians may (and should) be touched.

Bush has always said that the US is sympathetic to the plight of the Iranian people. We're putting our money where our mouth is. I would certainly hope that this is not unnoticed by the Iranian people and the Arab Street.

It's not the same as buying friendship, but politically pragmatic (perhaps even selfish) motivations are part of the equation.

We should still send the aid, despite what Habib says. But just for laughs, all our relief workers should wear yamulkas.

"If we wanted to buy Tehran's friendship, we'd call ourselves France."

Ouch. And true.

"...and is still just a bloody-minded bunch of 14th Century theocrats who cling to power through midnight arrests and occassionally shooting its restless college students."

And through said backward assedness, continue stifle development and progress to the point that an earthquake that, had it happened in downtown Los Angeles, might have killed a few thousand people, instead takes a Vietnam war's worth of human beings in fell stroke.

That's just...just...insane.

Ok, you're Joe Iranian. First, US soldiers pull the butcher of one million of your countrymen out of his hole, and now US food and medicine shows up at the door of needy earthquake victims. You're sick of the repression and want access to modern technology, information and education. Now your zealot leader is spoiling the best news you've gotten in years.

Mo Khatami is going to find himself in a very bad position very quickly. We're playing directly to the people and bypassing the backward barbarian government...and with 100,000 US troops sitting around, diplomatic overtures take on a slightly more serious tone.

Saddam was the first domino...

If the omnipotent/evil/incompetent/mad genius Bush could have caused this earthquake, so as to create the opportunity for America to bypass the mullahs and play to the Iranian people with a big show of our sympathy and magnanimity, it seems it could hardly have been better engineered.

Barring tinfoil-hat scenarios, though, it certainly does seem as though Bush is being handed softball after softball lately. Or maybe it's just that all the hard work that took place in the first two years following 9/11 is finally bearing fruit. Everything started to go our way, in the larger context of the WoT, the day we launched the first missiles on March 21.

I hope every item has a US flag on it and "Gift from the American People."

And the deliverers are special ops.

"We're helping because we want to, and because we can. That's just how we Americans are. If we wanted to buy Tehran's friendship, we'd call ourselves France."

Beautifully said. I could give a s&!t about their government, but when I saw fathers looking for their wives and children, children huddled with parents or relatives, looking for help, my first question was, "what can I do to help?" Americans by and large care about people, not governments. When people are hurting, we want to help, and we very often do.

As for the French, I think they are still figuring out how they can get Saddam back in power so that he can pay them all the money he promised. ;-)

Thanks.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

Several thoughts:

Sandy P: Most American aid does, indeed, have an American flag and the stenciled "Gift from the people of the United States" on it. One would HOPE, however, that we now not only do it in English, but also the local language (in this case, Farsi) as well.

It is interesting how often earthquakes have precipitated political backlashes against the local governments. IIRC, it was an earthquake in the mid-1970s that led, eventually, to Somoza's fall in Nicaragua, b/c the relief efforts were so corrupt and bolluxed up. Conversely, Juan Peron first arrived on the scene in helping clean up an earthquake in the early 1940s (?). Japan's government was shaken up (a little) when the Kobe earthquake relief efforts were seen to be far less effectual than the American responses to the Oakland quake.

One can only hope, given the contrast between Bam and CA, and if the Iranian mullahs are ineffectual, that the Iranian people will see that their fate need not be tied to the theocracy.

funny how no countries where nearly the entire population speaks english need international relief efforts!

and as for the "aid workers" we send: make them jewish spec ops "omar, why are all the americans scarily fit, have very short haircuts, and answer to yakov?"

this time it just might be a jewish-american conspiracy to take over iran! would at least be funny

Well, you just made me add a feature to my humble blog.

This:

We're helping because we want to, and because we can. That's just how we Americans are. If we wanted to buy Tehran's friendship, we'd call ourselves France.

.... is my first Quote of the Week.

And a superb one it is. Well done, sir.

Jim
Sloop New Dawn
Galveston, TX

When Iran's interior ministry announced that "Iran accepts all kinds of humanitarian aid from all countries and international organizations, with the exception of the Zionist regime," I had hoped that all those idealistic aid workers would have followed the course attributed to Denmark's King Christian X during Nazi occupation: the next day, every relief worker in the country would have shown up for work wearing a Star of David.

As an Iranian I have to say, yes Iranians are touched by the American humanity, and they thank all the poeple for every little help that they recieve.
I also lived enough in America to say that yes, Americans are different they've got heart and love for other people. I've never seen any culture more receptive and open, and free as American culture.
Iranian government is as corrupt as it can be, believe me Mullahs are already collecting the sellable items in their wharehouses!! You can't believe the minimum aid that people are receiving from Tehran.
Khamenei went there for Three hours, and people of Bam tried to kill him out of rage.
I am anti-Bush and anti-war; but sometimes I think, if Americans come to Tehran it's not gonna be worse than what it is, maybe even khamenei goes into trial!!!
And at the end, Iran is not in Axis of Evil, but Mullahs are the EVIL themselves.